My daughter is completing General Science this year in 7th gradeand has really enjoyed it. However, I am thinking it might be best to wait until 9th grade for Physical Science. She will be doing Pre-Algebra next year and I am concerned that the math portions in Physical Science will be very challenging.
With that being said, I am trying to figure out how to structure next year for science if I choose to go this route.
Does anybody have any suggestions for living books or other alternatives to Physical science? She likes to read and she loves the conversational tone of Apologia, so I’m not sure a textbook or program that is lacking in reading would work well. I would like to sharpen her narration skills and this might be a way she could work on them, using living books anyway.
She is college bound and a carrier in science isn’t out of the question. I just want to make sure she learns what she needs for high school and beyond, yet continues to love science.
Hope this makes sense and any help would be appreciated ; )
We are going to be doing living book science next year from Sabbath Mood Homeschool. Maybe that is something that would interest you. Also this summer we are doing a dvd Astronomy course as well. The full course is 26 weeks and is kinda pricey. I mention it just to give you options.
You might look into what Classical Conversations does for their Challenge B (typically 8th grade) science. I don’t think they do Apologia until 9th grade and when we changed from CC to CM I considered using their science book list–in fact, I might have my son read a couple of them over the summer because they sounded interesting. He is about 2/3 through Apologia’s Physical Science but I would like to add some living books to his plan. Hope you find what works!
My daughter and I are using Classical Astronomy by Jay Ryan.
You could also check out year 8 science at Ambleside Online.
Has your daughter read John Hudson Tiner’s books? I think Master’s Books has a study guide to go along with them. Master’s books has some other middle school packages that look interesting.
I’m also thinking that your daughter could easily handle Apologia’s Physical Science. I’ve read that the harder math doesn’t come in until towards the end of the book. She should have enough pre algebra knowledge by that time to handle it. I’ll look through my copy today just to make sure. Many, many students take pre algebra along side Physical Science.
My DD will be using Apologia’s Physical Science for 9th grade. My plan is to use Physics 101 DVDs as our “spine” and add in Apologia when their is a corresponding chapter. That means we’ll be skipping some Apologia modules on weather (which we are studying this year with our Earth Science book), following the Physics 101 study guide for other chapters where Apologia doesn’t have a corresponding module, and jumping around Apologia a bit.
I’m hoping this works okay! The text is a bit intimidating and she also struggles with math, but I also didn’t feel comfortable just using the 101 Series for high school credit. To me this is a “happy medium” and I’m hoping it works out okay.